Game of Thrones: A Guide to Recognizing the Hunky Dothraki of Season 6

As we know from the dramatic ending of Season 5 of Game of Thrones, Daenerys will be spending at least a little bit of Season 6 back in the company of the Dothraki. We got our first taste of these horse lords in a Season 6 clip from HBO.

Dothraki warrior is potentially a great breakout role for any of the actors involved this year. After all, Season 1 star Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) is now Aquaman and Rakharo (Elyes Gabel) left the show in Season 2 to become the lead of his very own CBS show, Scorpion. In other words, the future is so bright for these new Dothraki, they may need shades.

Those shades might also come in handy given the blazing-hot conditions these men had to film in last year. Dothraki (and the men who play them!) don’t seem too fond of shirts, and between the heavy beards and wigs and the blinding abs, it might be a bit of a challenge telling these Dothraki apart in Season 6. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. In the interest of Dothraki identification (and in the spirit of Emilia Clarke’spioneering work in the field of male objectification on Game of Thrones), here are the eight hunky actors and models playing Dothraki this season.

Joe Naufahu—Khal Moro

Naufahu, unquestionably, has the biggest role in the horde this season. He’s the Drogo to everyone else’s “that guy with a beard!” Unsurprisingly, Naufahu has the healthiest acting background of all the Season 6 Dothraki, and fans of the sword-and-sandal genre may recognize him from Spartacus: War of the Damned. He’ll also appear in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell. Naufahu endearingly brought his mom to the Game of Thrones Season 6 premiere.

Staz Nair—Qhono

Nair’s Instagram bio reads: “Actor, singer-songwriter and mischief maker,” and in 2012 he appeared on X-Factor as part of a group called Times Red where a) he flashed his abs to the judge (mischief!) and b) sang a boy-bandified version of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” (singer!). This is what he looks like in full Dothraki regalia.

No word on how big a role his character, Qhono, will play in Dany’s future. But he does get the most charming bits of dialogue in that clip above. “Hey, Great Khaleesi. Move your ass.” That ranks right up there with “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster” when it comes to introductory lines.

If you just caught yourself admiring Nair’s physical perfection, you’re not alone. He’ll play one of the most famous shirtless men in musical history, the titular Rocky, opposite Laverne Cox in Fox’s upcoming version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Elie Haddad—Bloodrider

Haddad doesn’t actually have an Instagram account anymore possibly because he was the one who accidentally posted a photo of a Season 6 script page that leaked out to the Internet. But thanks to his co-stars, we do have some sense of what he looks like in Dothraki gear.

Andrei Claude—Khal Rhalko

Unlike the others, Claude didn’t post any photos of himself in Dothraki gear, but the above picture was taken around the time he was shooting so the beard might be a good reference. Claude is a former fitness model and we know, from that Haddad leak, that his character will say some pretty nasty things about Daenerys. Don’t expect her to fold him into her horde should she and the Dothraki journey on together.

Deon Lee-Williams—Young Warrior

To be clear, this photo is from 2013 so it is not Lee-Williams in Dothraki gear. But he is still very young (as you can see in this more recent photo) so, yes, prepare yourself for a baby Dothraki. We didn’t see many teenage Dothraki males in Drogo’s khalasar, so this could get interesting.

I’ll leave you with a couple of musical interludes from the Dothraki guys goofing around behind the scenes.